Tilman Hausherr

Tilman Joerg Hausherr, a German national, is bent on the destruction of religious rights in Germany. While claiming to be solely employed as a software developer, Hausherr somehow manages to spend the vast majority of his time vilifying the practices of minority religions and lobbying to severely restrict the rights of parishioners, if not eliminate them entirely.

In addition to his attacks on other religions, Hausherr has been harassing the Church of Scientology since late 1994. His acts of hatred include making threats against parishioners by posting their names and businesses on the Internet to encourage boycotts, hate “pickets,” and email harassment, participating in hate demonstrations in an effort to intimidate parishioners from entering their Churches, and promoting the “picketing” of schools attended by the children of Scientologists.

[imgleft]http://www.religiousfreedomwatch.org/extremists/images/hausherr02.jpg[/imgleft]While lobbying for the destruction of the Church internationally, Hausherr is particularly devoted to destroying parishioners’ rights in Germany. In his internet postings, Hausherr applauds the psychiatric practice of Eugenics, the concept of creating a “pure” society by removing from it those who are considered “undesirable.” Members of minority religions are high on Hausherr’s list of undesirables and he wastes no opportunity to lobby his government to restrict their rights.

Hausherr is a strong supporter of Ursula Caberta, a Hamburg government official who works diligently to ensure that Scientologists are discriminated against in Germany. This includes harassing companies that hire Scientologists, generating anti-religious press, and lobbying the federal government to take actions to close Churches and affiliated Scientology organizations. One German court held that Caberta could be described as a “human rights violator.” Recently, Caberta was fined for accepting $75,000 from an American anti-religious extremist in conflict with her obligation as a government official to remain neutral and objective (something she has never done).

Hausherr is so extreme as to promote James Randi, a so-called Skeptic dedicated to attacking any belief for which he considers there is insufficient proof. Religion is a favorite target of the Skeptics movement, obviously because many religious beliefs are based in faith. Hausherr has carried his skepticism so far as to participate in attacks on magicians, decrying their entertainments as fraudulent.

Hausherr is given as a “source” on Scientology on at least one internet page of Skeptic’s links, which includes links to Dr. Stephen Barrett one of the earliest psychiatrists to attack Scientology. Hausherr has never been a Scientologist nor, it appears, has he ever made an honest attempt to study and understand the Church doctrines. Hausherr is, however, a strong supporter of psychiatry to the point where he even defends psychiatrists who have been convicted of such crimes as sexually molesting their patients. It is important to note that The Church of Scientology founded the Citizen’s Commission on Human Rights which is devoted to exposing psychiatric crimes and the abuse of psychiatric patients.

Hausherr has attended several conferences given internationally by anti-religious movement organizations. He also works closely with Thomas Gandow, a Lutheran minister active in the movement to oppress the rights of religious minorities in Germany.

Besides attacking Scientology, Hausherr also posts to other internet newsgroups that malign a variety of spiritual beliefs including transcendental meditation and different branches of East Indian religions.

Based on the extent of his anti-religious activities, and a remarkable degree of access to normally restricted information, it is highly suspected that Hausherr in truth works for the German government. He often posts to the Internet detailed personal information about Scientology businessmen in the US and abroad that is not generally made available to the public. Hausherr also works closely with Roger Gonnet, a French anti-religious extremist who appears to have equally remarkable access to French government documents that pertain to religious oppression in France.